The adoption of cloud-based computing shows no signs of slowing. Indeed, cloud services are expanding at an incredible rate across all sectors of the economy, with the market for public cloud services expected to grow to USD 210 billion by 2016, according to Gartner.

And it’s no wonder: The cloud is a compelling proposition for businesses and government agencies alike, offering easy access to shared, elastically allocated computing resources. The model creates savings on capital expenditures and reduces the running costs of operating a network, allowing enterprises to focus more on their core operations instead of IT.

However, what makes cloud computing so attractive to businesses — the sharing of resources to achieve economies of scale — also makes the model attractive to cybercriminals.

Cloud services concentrate so much data in one place that they become very attractive targets, justifying a large investment in a hacker’s time and resources. Recent research by the European Network and Information Securit Agency has led it to warn, “The proliferation of cloud computing and the sheer concentration of users and data on rather few logical locations are definitely an attractive target for future attacks.”

What types of attacks are most common against cloud environments? Volumetric attacks aim to overwhelm a network’s infrastructure with bandwidth-consuming traffic or resource-sapping requests.

State-exhaustion attacks, such as TCP SYN flood and idle session attacks, abuse the stateful nature of TCP to exhaust resources in servers, load balancers and firewalls. Several cloud providers saw their firewalls fail last year during DDoS attacks.

Techniques such as amplification magnify the amount of bandwidth that can be used to target a potential victim. Suppose an attacker is able to generate 100 Mbps of traffic with his botnet. This may inconvenience or block access to a small site, but it would not impact a well-protected cloud hosted site or service.

The attacker could go to a botnet herder to rent access to its botnet, but this could get expensive. The attacker also could use manual and automated coordination techniques similar to those used by the Anonymous group, which notifies fellow “anons” of the time to start an attack so that it’s big enough to affect the victim’s resources.

By using an amplification technique called DNS reflection, an attacker’s botnet can send out a DNS query of about 60 bytes to an open recursive DNS resolver that will gener-ate a response message sent to the victim of up to 4,000 bytes, increasing the amount of attack traffic by a factor of more than 60. The DNS protocol is ideal for this type of attack because queries can be sent with a spoofed source address — using User Datagram Protocol, which doesn’t require a handshake — and a DNS response is significantly larger than the query itself.

Businesses offering cloud-based services face a growing data leakage threat, say Taiwanese hardware designers. They claim to have devised a tactic to fight back: a chip with circuitry to frustrate what are known as side-channel attacks.

Side-channel attacks scrutinize things like computation time, power consumption, and electromagnetic emissions to glean something about the operations of cloud servers or to steal the cryptographic keys they use. Johns Hopkins University cryptography researcher Matthew D. Green writes in the January/February issue of IEEE Security & Privacy magazine that the cloud offers “a bonanza of potential side channels, because different virtual machines share physical resources, such as processor, instruction cache, or disk, on a single computer.” If malware in one virtual machine monitors the behavior of those resources, it could, in theory, figure out the set of cryptographic keys being used by a separate virtual machine, so long as both virtual machines reside on the same physical server. In fact, researchers at RSA Laboratories, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Wisconsin created such an attack, although it was difficult to execute.

A research team from the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) in Hsinchu, Taiwan, decided to focus its defenses on cryptography chips that perform elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC). ECC has gained popularity in recent years, especially for mobile devices, because it uses much shorter cryptographic keys than other mainstream public-key cryptography methods do.

Last month, at the 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), in San Francisco, the NCTU team reported that their new chip is resistant to side-channel attacks. Essentially, it makes side-channel attacks take so long that they become impractical.

“In the chip, we introduced not only a simplified way to do the encryption/decryption but also a sort of random-number generator to prevent side-channel attacks,” says Chen-Yi Lee, professor of electrical and electronics engineering at NCTU. “Hackers would have to spend five or six years to gain the details that they currently can get within a day” using side-channel attacks. (The RSA Laboratories experiment required about 6 hours.)

The key was the adoption of what the engineers call a heterogeneous dual-processing-element architecture, which balances both computation time and power consumption during different types of operations. In addition, the design includes a simple but novel digitally controlled oscillator to enhance the chip’s ability to generate random numbers. Jen-Wei Lee, a Ph.D. student at NCTU and first author of the report delivered at ISSCC, says that the design prevented hackers from detecting characteristic changes in the length of computations that could reveal cryptographic keys, because it made the computation time for different types of work appear equal.

Fabricated in a 90-nanometer CMOS process, the team’s 160-bit chip is about 0.4 square millimeters in size. “It can easily be integrated to an encryption/decryption IC, becoming a module for mobile devices,” Chen-Yi Lee says.

According to Chen-Yi Lee, making a side-channel-attack-resistant ECC chip would only cost about 5 percent more than the cost of a standard encryption chip, and it would consume about 5 percent more power.

The NCTU “chip design is motivated by the high computation cost of public-key cryptography. Indeed, even the generation of several thousand signatures per second already requires a high-end server,” says Schaumont. When clocked at 200 megahertz, the NCTU chip takes about 0.3 milliseconds per 160-bit signature. “This type of signature is considered low end for today’s standards,” he says, adding that people would preferably go for a 256-bit signature, which has a cryptographic strength that matches that of other contemporary crypto-algorithms, including the well-known AES-128. Nevertheless, the numbers NCTU achieved “give an idea [of] what a dedicated hardware chip can do,” Schaumont says.

Jen-Wei Lee, one of Chen-Yi Lee’s students who worked on the encryption chip, says that they will next optimize the hardware design to work with ID-based encryption—a form of public-key encryption in which the public key is some unique information about the user, such as an e-mail or IP address.

About the Author

Yu-Tzu Chiu is a Taipei correspondent for Bloomberg BNA. She has chronicled Taiwan’s tech policies for IEEE Spectrum since 2000. In February 2013, she reported on a way to use brain activity to predict whether a new online game would be a hit or a flop.

For anyone who doubts the power and prevalence of ‘disruptive technologies’—defined by a Harvard Business School professor as a new technology that unexpectedly displaces an established technology—just look at the speed of adoption of new technologies today versus a few decades ago. According to a recent article in Computerworld, it took the telephone 25 years to penetrate just 10 percent of U.S. households and another 39 years to reach 40 percent.[1] However, the same article goes on to highlight that “color television took 18 years to reach 50 percent of households,” smartphones “just 10 years to reach 40 percent adoption,” and the “tablet less than three years to reach 10 percent penetration.”

These figures clearly illustrate that the speed of adoption of disruptive technologies is accelerating, and this doesn’t just impact consumers. Rapidly emerging trends and technologies such as cloud computing, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and big data pose several challenges for organisations—capturing the attention of information technology (IT) professionals, CEO’s, and even government leaders.

In order to mitigate the security risks, costs, and complexities associated with emerging technologies, it’s important for organisations to recognize which disruptors are here to stay and how to prepare for their adoptions. To assist in this mitigation, below is list of some of the biggest game changers from 2012 that will continue to play major roles this year in the way organisations think about and build their IT infrastructures:

Cloud computing
Perhaps one of the biggest disruptive technologies to come to market, cloud computing is attractive to organisations because of its scalability and security, which can lead to productivity gains and an enhanced bottom line. According to Gartner, by 2016, “more than 50 percent of Global 1000 companies will have stored customer-sensitive data in the public cloud.”[2]

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
The BYOD phenomenon is unique and impactful for two key reasons: the first is that it represents the consumerisation of IT—the trend of personal tech products, such as smartphones and tablet devices, spilling over from the consumer environment into the workplace. The second has to do with BYOD’s speed of adoption, which is unprecedented. To put it in perspective, Gartner predicts that “mobile phones will officially overtake PC’s in 2013 as the most commonly used devices to access the web.”[3]

The ‘Internet of Things’
A concept that’s quickly gaining ground, the ‘Internet of Things’ refers to the ability for “consumer devices and appliances, such as washing machines and furnaces, to communicate with one another via web access and a complex system of embedded sensors.”[4] A great example, taken from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is a refrigerator that can confirm it has all of the necessary ingredients for a dish and then signal to the oven to start warming up. Once the oven reaches the desired temperature, it then alerts the homeowner via a message flashed across the TV.[5] Considering that consumers can already use their smartphones as remote controls and more, it isn’t a stretch to envision the ‘Internet of Things’ in the workplace.

Big Data
According to IBM, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day—so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. All of this falls under the definition of big data and includes the data used to gather climate information, cell phone GPS signals, and posts to social media sites.[6] Because of its volume, big data presents a significant challenge for business leaders who aren’t sure how to leverage what it can teach them.

Preparing for TakeoffAlthough there’s no real way to prepare for disruptive technologies, there are a number of steps business leaders can take to protect their companies from any complexities associated with their adoption:

Adopt a multi-vendor or standards-based approach to network infrastructure.In the past, companies like Cisco heavily promoted the single vendor approach to network architecture as an easier, more cost-effective way to build and maintain data centres. However, given the accelerated lifecycle of today’s IT solutions, it’s no longer practical to limit company networks to just one manufacturer. In order to control costs and maintain flexibility, business leaders need to adopt solutions that integrate well with other systems, making it easier to adopt newer technologies without reinventing the wheel. One way to do this is to consider partnering with an independent technical solutions provider. If your company has historically worked with one manufacturer, an independent technology provider can help you drive simplicity and reduce costs with solutions from multiple vendors.

Look for IT solutions specifically architected for emerging technologies.Although Cisco remains a dominant force in network infrastructures, their solutions are architected on hardware instead of virtualisation software—making it significantly more complex and costly for their customers to convert to virtualisation. In order to reduce costs and achieve increased throughput in a virtual machine (VM) environment, IT leaders should stay on the lookout for up-and-coming companies offering solutions specifically architected for the new generation of networking and security equipment. Generally founded within the last decade, their solutions will offer high-performing networking, server, and storage capabilities while enabling customers to control costs, improve scalability and security, and achieve nearly unlimited flexibility in architectural design.

Train employees.Talent management experts have long touted the philosophy that people are a company’s greatest asset, and this could not hold truer than in the technology sector. To stay ahead, companies must ensure that their IT professionals are fully aware of and knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in the tech industry. To do this, give employees access to tools and resources that will keep them informed about new products or strategies that could affect the company. Routinely challenge them to think of new and creative ways to cut costs or improve operational efficiency through new technologies. If you work with an independent hardware provider, take advantage of their customer demo lab in order to test new solutions and see how they could impact your business.

Adopt Now, Benefit Later

Rather than shy away from emerging technologies, organisations can stay ahead of the curve by familiarising themselves with the latest trends, developments, and solutions in IT infrastructure. Although disruptive technologies pose several challenges, they can also improve an organisation’s operational efficiency and make life easier for employees. Experts believe that by 2020—thanks to disruptive technologies—smartphones will be cheaper, computers will be able to learn by themselves, and cloud computing will provide limitless power and storage.[7] In order to alleviate the security risks, costs, and complexities associated with emerging technologies, IT leaders should be vendor-agnostic, well-informed about new developments in technology, and always open to new ideas and solutions.

Justin Hadler is Director of Engineering at Hardware.com, a global leader in networking hardware, architectures, procurement, and support. Hardware.com’s team of experienced and distinguished consultants partner with companies to identify, implement, and support advanced network infrastructures that align companies’ technological requirements with their business and economic goals. For more information, please visit www.hardware.com.

As the business world turns more than ever to mobile devices and cloud-based file-sharing services to store or collaborate on important documents, the amount of information that is falling into the wrong hands keeps climbing.

In its 2012 Confidential Documents at Risk Study, the Ponemon Institute points out that 60% of organizations have employees who frequently or very frequently put confidential files on services like Dropbox without permission. 90% of the surveyed organizations say that they experienced leakage or loss of sensitive or confidential documents over the past 12-month period.

From Dropbox and Google Drive to MediaFire and RapidShare, there are loads of services providing space in the cloud for users to store large files or share them with colleagues.

The Uneasy Relationship Between Corporations and Consumer Cloud Apps

End-user ignorance often plays a key role in exposing sensitive business data. It is why IT admins should be educating users on approaching cloud storage with caution. Part of this strategy could include creating clear policies as to which services can be used and how and which types of document are allowed to transit through public cloud file-sharing services.

Some companies are already enforcing strong policies regulating the use of such file-sharing services. IBM is among those who, for security concerns, has completely banned the use of Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud, and other well-known services on their corporate network. As an alternative, IBM has its own custom-built solution for file sharing, but unfortunately for SMBs, it is not everyone that can afford such measures.

Should SMBs Really Be Worried About Leaks?

Some providers would like you to think otherwise, but the security risks associated with any BYOC (bring-your-own-cloud) approach are real, and it doesn’t matter if you are a small business or a large multinational. The BYOC approach increases the threat of insiders walking out with the business’ intellectual property. Generally speaking, well-known applications such as Dropbox or Google Drives, don’t inherently pose huge problems for most SMBs. That does not mean, however, that the use of consumer-oriented applications is always the best solution because they are often lacking in terms of controlling or monitoring what employees are uploading to the cloud.

The best approach is to provide employees with a SMB-grade cloud collaboration solution for sensitive corporate data. MozyPro, SugarSync or Box.com, for instance, offer professional web-based versions for businesses. Cloud storage services that cater to enterprises allow administrators to control the account settings of all users and easily configure permissions and privileges for the entire organization. These services have everything any small business would need from backup, sync, access and sharing files on-the-go, instantly and securely from virtually any device.

In general all sensitive and confidential corporate data should remain stored behind the corporate firewall. Enterprises with larger budgets and a large number of employees can also choose to turn to companies specializing in building private clouds or multi-enterprise cloud storage options which will offer appropriate security and often at a lower cost than a public subscription based service.

Should SMBs Just Say “No” to Consumer Grade Cloud Storage?

The answer depends on your willingness to live with the idea of letting confidential data transit outside of you IT department’s control. Services like Dropbox and other well-known applications are a huge asset for SMBs who do not have the resources to invest in cloud services especially designed for businesses. They are driving new ways of working within SMBs have a real potential for increasing employee productivity.

Businesses that choose to allow the utilization of consumer grade cloud storage services need to at least better educate their employees on the inherent risks of security breaches because one thing is for sure: however they try to avoid it, the use and prevalence of consumer cloud storage services will continue to be a growing trend.

London, 17 January, 2013 – Ovum has published three “Trends to watch reports” on Cloud computing and reveals that 2013 will see cloud computing continue to grow rapidly.

2013 Trends to Watch: Private and Public Clouds* report , drills downs into not only private and public cloud trends, but also infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) trends, meanwhile, 2013 Trends to Watch: Cloud Services** report, looks at cloud computing from the point of view of IT service providers. Finally, 2013 Trends to Watch: Cloud Computing*** report, looks at the way cloud service providers and consumers adapt to cloud computing both on their own and as part of increasingly sophisticated cloud ecosystems.

In the “2013 Trends to Watch: Cloud Computing” report, Laurent Lachal, Senior Analyst, Ovum Software notes that “Cloud computing promises to tackles two hitherto irreconcilable IT challenges: the need to reduce costs and the need to boost innovation”.

Lachal says: “It takes a lot of effort from vendors and enterprises to actually make it work, and they will succeed in making it work in 2013, both on their own and as part of increasingly complex ecosystems.”

Indeed, cloud computing in all its guises (public, private, and hybrid) is building momentum, evolving fast and becoming increasingly “enterprise-grade”. Yet, it is early days for vendors and enterprises.

Lachal adds: “Cloud computing has barely reached the adolescence phase and it will take at least another five years for cloud computing to mature into adulthood.

2013 will also see the emergence of cloud computing ecosystem. Public clouds are increasingly approached not only as technology delivery platforms but also as “ecosystem hubs” for cloud service providers and consumers.

Lachal comments: “They offer a new way to accelerate participation in the rapidly evolving social networking and mobile solution ecosystems of the Internet age. Some industry sectors are benefiting from the “data centre as a hub”, an increasingly cloud computing-centric ecosystem of partners that assembles in a key location or data centre such as around financial exchanges, web and online services, or media content.”

Data will be the new cloud computing oil in 2013.

Cloud computing services, and the (social, mobile) applications that cloud platforms underpin, generate a lot of data, which in turn requires cloud services and applications to make sense of it.

This trend connects with and fuels other industry trends such as the Internet of things (machine-to-machine communication and data processing, cloud computing-based smart cities, TVs or cars projects), open government data, consumerisation of IT (with a variety of cross-device content centric public clouds, such as the one provided by Apple), and, last but not least, Big Data.

The market’s attention, under the Big Data banner, is currently mostly focused on technology issues, but from 2013 onward from a cloud computing perspective there will be growing interest in the cultural shift required by vendors and enterprises to turn data into a resource to manage and monetize, starting with data abstraction (from underlying IT systems), sharing (within and outside the enterprise), and valuation (via a model from companies such as Accenture).

“Some vendors played the cloud data card early , but the cloud data production, brokerage, and consumption ecosystem is still in the making and will continue to evolve over the next five years,” concludes Lachal.

*2013 Trends to Watch: Private and Public Clouds

**The 2013 Trends to Watch: Cloud Services

***2013 Trends to Watch: Cloud Computing

To arrange an interview or for further information please contact Claire Booty on +44 (0) 20 7017 7916, or email claire.booty@ovum.com

Jointly awarded IIAR Global Analyst Firm of the Year 2012, Ovum provides clients with independent and objective analysis that enables them to make better business and technology decisions. Its research draws upon over 400,000 interviews each year with business and technology, telecoms and sourcing decision-makers, giving Ovum and its clients unparalleled insight, not only into business requirements but also the technology that organizations must support. Ovum is an Informa business.

]]>Moving to the Cloudhttp://www.powersourceonline.com/magazine/2012/11/moving-to-the-cloud
http://www.powersourceonline.com/magazine/2012/11/moving-to-the-cloud#commentsThu, 01 Nov 2012 12:15:28 +0000http://www.powersourceonline.com/magazine/?p=6670Moving to the Cloud: Pros and Cons

By: Marie-Claude Veillette, PowerSourceOnline.com

Cloud computing is a term on everyone’s lips these days. The concept can be described as a way to access your computer remotely via the Internet to store, manage, and process data. Businesses big and small that are looking for cloud-based services are searching for a solution that could help them reduce their software and other computing costs. Arguments often cited in favor of the cloud are that cloud-based business applications are easy to use, eliminate backup worries, require no maintenance and allow users to access files from anywhere with internet access rather than relying on being able to connect to local computer or servers.

Although these arguments are convincing, many companies continue to rely on their in-house technology services while cloud computing moves from hype to reality. Some business decision-makers have cold feet about internet-based services because of concerns over security and privacy, and these are certainly the top barriers for getting started and working in the cloud, especially in government and healthcare sectors where privacy and security are extremely important.

However, many business owners who are afraid of cloud computing do not quite understand that their data can be protected in the cloud and that the gains in functionality and efficiency could give them important financial and competitive advantages. They also often do not realize that today’s cloud computing offers an array of deployment models. They have a choice between adopting community cloud solutions or taking a public, private or “hybrid approach.”

Differences between Public, Private, Hybrid and Community Cloud

Private, public, hybrid, or community, the goals of cloud computing remain the same: Providing easy and scalable access to computing resources and IT services.

Public cloud: As its name indicates, a public cloud sells services to anyone. Applications and data are stored on shared servers at a third-party provider that supply cloud solutions for many clients. The customer has no control over where the computing infrastructure is hosted. Although this option offers cost savings and guarantees a high level of flexibility and initial speed of deployment, several companies are not comfortable with the idea of having sensitive data stored on servers shared with other customers.

Private cloud: A private cloud is an infrastructure dedicated solely to one organization and not shared with other organizations. This solution can be managed by the organization or a third-party on site or off-site and is designed to offer the same benefits of public cloud computing while addressing most of the concerns that using a public cloud may rise such as data protection and security.

Hybrid cloud: A Hybrid cloud, also referred to as cloud bursting, is composed of both private and public clouds. Although both entities operate in independent way, they are bound together in order to enable data and application portability. An organization may for example host sensitive data on private cloud and less critical applications on public cloud. This kind of structure offers both the advantages of public and private cloud, but it is more complex to operate.

Community cloud: A community cloud is a computing infrastructure shared by several organizations. This type of cloud computing is popular within government organizations, health care and defense that have to exchange data among themselves through secure channels.

The Benefits of Private vs. Public and Hybrid

When looking at which cloud approach to adopt, it is important to consider the company structure, security and privacy concerns, as well as the environment, requirements, policies and standards.

A private cloud (also called an Internal Cloud or Enterprise Cloud) offers virtual computing services deployed over a company’s private intranet or hosted datacenter. That type of infrastructure leaves companies in control but also means they shoulder the management overhead. Whereas public cloud resources can be scaled instantly, a private cloud requires hardware and software upgrades to be purchased and installed on-site. A private cloud could be a smart choice for enterprise and government organizations looking to reap the benefits of cloud computing without compromising critical security policies or overall system flexibility.

Public cloud services relieve companies of the management burden, but at the expense of some visibility and control over access to the underlying infrastructure. Benefits of a public cloud are the reduced complexity in software, hardware, and administration, and the lack of delays and expense associated with developing in-house applications. A public cloud could be a smart choice for consumers, start-ups, and small and midsized companies looking for low upfront cost and practically infinite scalability. Cloud computing providers’ offers SMBs access to more sophisticated technology at lower prices and reduces the cost of licensing software and buying servers.

A hybrid strategy, which incorporates both off-site and on-site services, might be the best approach to obtaining the best of both worlds. With a hybrid cloud, companies provide and manage some resources in-house and have others provided externally. Administrators can customize rules and policies that govern areas such as access and security, as well as the underlying infrastructure. They take advantage of the scalability and profitability that a public cloud offers without exposing sensitive data. A hybrid cloud could be a smart choice for business decision-makers who don’t feel secure about having all their applications and data stored on shared servers.

Why Go Up There?

There are many factors driving organizations towards the cloud, but here are 3 most often cited reasons: lower costs, scalability and productivity.

Cloud computing can save businesses money. The cloud offers pay-per-use pricing without long term contracts. Rather than paying for software licenses and hardware equipment you might access only occasionally, you pay only for the services you use, and the service is fully managed by the provider. Moving your business to the cloud also reduces the need for an IT staff.

Cloud computing makes businesses more agile. With greater flexibility, lower infrastructure and lower operation costs, the cloud allows businesses to implement applications faster, and add capacity on demand. As your business grows, you can accommodate by adding more server space.

Cloud computing raises employees’ productivity. Since services in the cloud can be accessed anytime from anywhere, it becomes easier to connect with colleagues and remote clients. Cloud computing increases employees’ productivity by giving them more mobility and flexibility through the ability to access documents and e-mails by logging in from an Internet-connected computer or mobile device.

Before making the decision of moving their business to the cloud, administrators should weigh the pros and cons of cloud computing in order to choose the best solution. Even though the advantages of moving to the cloud are obvious, it’s important to look at the downsides such as privacy and data mobility and ownership.

Companies should look at the workflows that are currently supported by software (HR, Financial, CRM, ERP, etc.) and make a determination on where they could reside. Criteria such as application availability and security requirements along with cost considerations should ideally dictate where the workflows should be supported; either in the public, private or even community cloud.

Hardware.com Identifies Top Tech Trends for 2013 in Honor of National Techies Day

Trends highlight changes to the role of information technology professionals

MINNEAPOLIS, MN –– Advancements in technology not only impact business productivity, budget, and a company’s ability to compete, they also shift the job functions of information technology (IT) professionals. For instance, according to Forrester Consulting1, 72 percent of today’s enterprise executives are battling escalating threats to IT, leaving IT professionals with more security-focused tasks. In honor of National Techies Day, Hardware.com has named four tech trends for 2013 that demonstrate how the role of IT professionals may change.

“The new year will bring innovative advancements in technology that will drive the evolution of IT,” said Rick Dykhoff, Director of Channel Sales at Hardware.com. “These trends have the potential to change the role of IT professionals, as well as improve business productivity when implemented properly.”

Hardware.com’s top tech trends for 2013 include

1. The spread of fourth-generation (4G) and 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology

According to a 2012 report from market research firm IHS iSuppli2, wireless carriers expect spending for LTE technology to reach $24.3 billion in 2013. As 4G technology replaces 3G technology, organizations will be able to equip workers with mobile devices that can better handle activities such as videoconferencing. 4G will also allow information to be sent more quickly and at a lower cost. This has the ability to improve productivity, because workers will be able to do more while on-the-go.

2. The “consumerization of IT”

Today, more than ever, employees are bringing their personal technology to the office; for 2013, it doesn’t seem this trend will lose steam. In fact, a 2012 study from Cisco3 found that 95 percent of the 600 IT and business leaders surveyed allow employee-owned devices in the workplace. Consumerization can actually eliminate some headaches for IT workers, since most consumer technologies are fairly easy to understand and use. Equipping employees with self-supported devices then frees up time for IT workers, allowing them to focus on more proactive, strategic tasks. However, IT professionals will need to ensure employees are using these devices in a secure manner and are in compliance with the company’s IT guidelines.

3. A growing interest in the cloud

As more businesses look to increase efficiencies and simplify the way in which data and applications are handled and stored, interest and spending in cloud computing has grown significantly. A June 2012 report from Visiongain4, an independent media company, estimates the cloud computing market will be worth approximately $37.9 billion by the end of the year. Cloud computing allows businesses to easily upscale or downscale IT requirements when necessary, freeing IT professionals from time-consuming tasks. Nevertheless, IT professionals may encounter difficulty transitioning to the cloud if their organization uses legacy applications.

4. A change in IT budgets

According to ComputerWorld’s Forecast 2013, 43 percent of IT organizations expect their IT budgets to increase, compared to 36 percent last year5. Along with this optimism comes a desire to hire IT professionals with specific skills such as programming and application development, project management, and technical support. This means businesses will look for IT professionals to be more focused on creating new technology and software to keep up with competitors. IT leaders who already possess these skills can position themselves as assets to their companies by constraining costs, since head count won’t have to be dramatically increased.

“As with any trend, some organizations will act as early adopters while others are later to the game or choose to ignore a technology movement completely,” added Justin Hadler, Director of Engineering at Hardware.com. “In honor of National Techies Day, we wanted to highlight how these trends might affect IT professionals and encourage them to get their business leaders on board with upcoming changes.”

Founded in 2003, Hardware.com is a global leader in networking hardware, architectures, procurement, and support. Headquartered in Gloucestershire, England with operations across Europe and the U.S., the company provides a valued information technology (IT) partnership to organizations of all sizes. Hardware.com’s team of experienced and distinguished consultants partner with companies to identify, implement, and support advanced network infrastructures that align companies’ technological requirements with their business and economic goals. For more information on the company’s products, services, and solutions, visithttp://us.hardware.com.

ADTRAN Extends the Reach of Ethernet and Expands Opportunities to Deploy VoIP and Data over Voice Grade Wiring

Businesses can now add up to 100Mbps of data to existing voice-grade wiring and more than triple service reach up to 365 meters

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 4, 2012– ADTRAN®, Inc., (NASDAQ:ADTN), a leading provider of cloud connectivity, enterprise communications and virtual mobility solutions, today announced the introduction of ActivReach™, the industry’s first Ethernet technology to support all grades of wiring, extend service reach over three times beyond the limits of standard Ethernet and deliver high-speed voice, data and Power over Ethernet (PoE) all from a single device. The initial application for ActivReach is in ADTRAN’s new NetVanta® 1535P Gigabit Ethernet switch which enables businesses and service providers maximum flexibility in designing networks across long distances of CAT3, CAT5 and CAT6 cable. This industry-breakthrough capability allows millions of businesses around the world to easily utilize their existing voice-grade wiring infrastructure to access IP-based voice, hosted services, cloud-based unified communications (UC), and deliver data networking speeds at 100Mbps while transitioning their business towards a Gigabit future.

Many older office buildings, schools, retail stores, hotels, hospitals and distribution facilities rely solely on CAT3 or voice-grade cabling infrastructure for their legacy phone systems. However, voice-grade cable is unsuitable for traditional Ethernet, limiting businesses’ ability to take advantage of the latest IP voice and data network capabilities. Traditionally, businesses have been forced to run new cable to enable Voice over IP (VoIP) and cutting-edge UC services. However, with new cabling upgrade costs running at hundreds of dollars per drop, this option becomes cost-prohibitive for many of these companies.

“Our business customers that reside in these older buildings have told us time and time again that re-cabling costs are a significant barrier in their ability to adopt our hosted service offerings. Despite the overall total cost-of-ownership benefits that VoIP can offer them, they back away from the service because the initial investment is just too much,” said Mark Stappenbeck, senior manager of business development for Windstream-Allworx. “ADTRAN’s ActivReach-enabled NetVanta 1535P Gigabit Ethernet switch delivers 100 Mbps over existing cable plant infrastructure, allowing us to offer flawless voice quality without impacting the existing data network. All of our customers can finally take advantage of the complete set of benefits that our hosted VoIP and UC services can offer.”

ActivReach is an ideal solution for a broad variety of industries and verticals, including hospitality. The Best Western Rivertree Inn in Clarkston, Wash., for example, recently completed a hotel expansion which resulted in different communications infrastructure and service capabilities throughout the hotel property—the old wing was only equipped with legacy voice-grade copper while the new wing had CAT3-grade cabling. The innovative design of ADTRAN’s NetVanta 1535P utilizes standard 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet or ActivReach for extended power and connectivity in a variety of cabling environments. This design accommodated and blended the two disparate infrastructures to provide the hotel with a complete solution for flexible data connectivity up to 100Mbps.

“Until recently, we were not able to provide all of the data services that our guests have come to expect from the hotel industry. We needed to provide a consistent guest experience, regardless of which room they were in, and we were unable to do that before,” said Ella Dilling, owner, Best Western Rivertree Inn. “ADTRAN’s ActivReach technology has enabled us to offer high-speed data access across the entire property, while lowering our overall operating expenses for the hotel because we were able to avoid the costly installation of new cable.”

“The NetVanta 1535P with ActivReach is currently the only solution that can realistically provide a path for a Gigabit future while removing the traditional limitations of existing voice-grade wiring,” said Patrick Price, product manager for ADTRAN’s Ethernet Switching product line. “With ActivReach, businesses—regardless of their location, cabling infrastructure or IT budget—will now be able to leverage a cost-effective solution for both voice and desktop connectivity in a way they have not been able to do before.”

The NetVanta 1535P has 24 copper ports and 4 fiber ports for uplinks and stacking. Each copper port can be configured for speeds of 10/100 Mbps in ActivReach mode at distances up to 365 meters (1,200 ft) or standard IEEE 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet at distances up to 100 meters (328 ft). Therefore, infrastructure upgrades can be performed incrementally and the same switch port previously configured for ActivReach can be transitioned to Gigabit networking speeds once new cabling is put in place, maximizing total cost of ownership. List price for the NetVanta 1535P is $4,695 with availability starting in early October 2012. To learn more, please visit www.adtran.com/activreach.

About ADTRAN

ADTRAN, Inc. is a leading global provider of networking and communications equipment. ADTRAN’s products enable voice, data, video and Internet communications across a variety of network infrastructures. ADTRAN solutions are currently in use by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations, and millions of individual users worldwide. For more information, please visit www.adtran.com.

AMSTERDAM & DUBLIN & BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 16, 2012– ADTRAN®, Inc., (NASDAQ:ADTN), a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions, today announced plans for a live demonstration of the industry’s first cloud-based mobile offload architecture at Broadband World Forum. The demonstration will illustrate the flexibility of the cloud-based architecture and leverage the power of network virtualization to offload mobile traffic to Wi-Fi. With live access points (APs) on the show floor in Amsterdam, mobile users will authenticate with their mobile carrier via the Accuris Networks AccuROAM platform in Dublin, all while being controlled from a Bluesocket virtual WLAN (vWLAN®) virtual control instance in Boston. Anyone with a suitable roaming agreement on their mobile device can enjoy the benefit of automatic roaming from the cellular network to the Wi-Fi network at the ADTRAN exhibit on the show floor.

First announced in June 2012, ADTRAN’s approach to mobile offload is unique in that the data session is distributed and managed locally in the AP. The control plane is both centralized and virtualized so that it can reside anywhere in the cloud. As shown in this demonstration, data sessions do not have to go back to Boston but rather access the Internet directly from the show floor in Amsterdam. With user control and session authentication taking place remotely, the need for data session backhaul is eliminated. This gives mobile network operators the maximum degree of freedom to design an optimal offload network.

Mobile offload solutions are enabling service providers to address the growing demand for mobile data. Smartphones and tablets make data sessions simple to launch and easy to use. The proliferation of these devices has created congestion on 3G/4G/LTE mobile networks, but fortunately these devices are equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity and therefore their data sessions are capable of being offloaded. Unfortunately, most Wi-Fi networks are either built on independent access points that cannot support AP to AP mobility or built around a hardware-based controller-centric architecture that create backhaul challenges. ADTRAN’s cloud-based mobile offload solution, based on vWLAN, saves operators the expense and engineering challenges of coping with backhaul. At the same time, vWLAN supports AP to AP mobility, security policies at the AP, and user differentiation necessary to support offload.

“With the great response we’ve had from customers to our cloud-based mobile offload solution, we are excited to share this live demonstration with Broadband World Forum attendees so they can see the benefits first hand,” said Chris Koeneman, vice president of sales for the Bluesocket Business Group at ADTRAN. “Our virtualized approach to mobile offload addresses the backhaul dilemma for operators by eliminating the need for hardware-based controllers in the network. As a result, service providers are able to deploy a highly secure offload solution that can cost-effectively scale to absorb the demand for mobile data.”

To learn more about ADTRAN’s mobile offload solution, please visit us at stand F24 in Hall 11 on the Broadband World Forum show floor. In addition, you can also hear Chris Koeneman speak about mobile offload during the Wireless Broadband Summit on Wednesday, October 17 at 1:00pm.

About ADTRAN

ADTRAN, Inc. is a leading global provider of networking and communications equipment. ADTRAN’s products enable voice, data, video and Internet communications across a variety of network infrastructures. ADTRAN solutions are currently in use by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations, and millions of individual users worldwide. For more information, please visit www.adtran.com.

About Accuris Networks

Accuris Networks is a leading provider of roaming interworking, device management and convergence solutions. For more information, visit Accuris Networks at www.accuris-networks.com.

SMB Nation is taking conference attendees “Back to the Future” with its SMB Nation 2012 Fall Conference from October 12-14 in Las Vegas, NV, at the Rio. This year’s 10th anniversary conference will examine the new technologies transforming the SMB channel, including Windows 8 and Server 2012, cloud computing and virtualization, mobile computing, and both hybrid and on-premises infrastructure. The conference will also include both a business and technical roadmap on how VARs, MSPs, and IT consultants can embrace the new post-Small Business Server reality.

Beyond keynote addresses from CompTIA, Microsoft, Intel, and StorageCraft, conference attendees have the option of focusing on one of three content tracks: the Geek Speak, Business, or Community track.

Microsoft MVP Jeff Middleton’s session—Beyond SBS: The Future of Skill Based IT Pro Consulting—has received a high level of attention from registered conference-goers. In summarizing his session, Middleton explains:

“The question isn’t who is going to survive; it’s who is going to thrive. For the past 20 years, IT pros lifted small businesses into a level expectation for technical excellence. Diverse technical skill and the obscure ability to integrate and define unique product solution sets for customers was the key. Is that skill-based opportunity gone, or did you just get lazy? What is the future, what’s changed, and are you still in the game?”

Middleton will team up with several other IT gurus in a deep dive discussion of the core technologies, critical skills and service strategies that will define the next generation of successful IT pros in what promises to be a highly technical session with a strong dose of business reality.

The conference’s Business track focuses primarily on sales, marketing and businesses opportunities in the SMB IT sector. Specific session titles include Fast-Fast Marketing for MSPs, Financial Management Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential, and Growing a Profitable Service Desk. Harry Brelsford will also kick off SMB Nation’s new Pocket MBA program at this year’s conference. Attendees who enroll as charter students in the Pocket MBA (MSP major) program will have all of their conference fees waived.

Numerous registered conference attendees have expressed interest in Todd Colbeck’s Sales Training 101: Making Friends with Your Prospect. Colbeck is the principal and founder of the Colbeck Coaching Group and has individually trained hundreds of business owners and professionals. His session explains how the first step in making a sale is making a friend. His session description goes on to say:

“Think how much easier getting to a sale is if you have already built a great relationship with the prospect. Think of how challenging making a sale is if you have little or no relationship with the prospect. This course will reveal step by step how to make a friend with the prospect in the first 5 minutes. Trying to close a sale without taking this critical step is like cracking a walnut with your fingers. Anybody who tells you the key to selling is ABC (Always Be Closing) is working much harder than they have to. Selling to a “friend” is much easier and much more fun!”

The course will include information on how to put people in a good mood in a minute or less, three questions IT pros should always ask before presenting their product or service, how to get simple commitments upfront (that lead to bigger commitments at the close) and how to build virtually instant rapport with clients, vendors, and staff alike.

The conference’s community track is geared toward channel members who want to network with their colleagues, understand recent developments and trends in the broader SMB technology industry, and explore potential relationships with established IT vendors, such as Microsoft and Dell. This track features a number of SMB Nation community sponsors who will make educational presentations on such topics as business continuity, cloud storage and backup, virtualization and cyber security.

“The great thing about SMB Nation is that it can be all things for all people,” said Harry Brelsford, founder and chairman of SMB Nation. “This year’s conference has top quality technical, business and community content. But I’m especially excited about the business development opportunities. The business community is pushing IT to move beyond the role of mere solution providers. They need IT consultants who can take the initiative in developing and integrating solutions that enhance efficiency and productivity. The conference’s business track and Pocket MBA program will show IT pros how to fill that role.”

In addition to the conference’s main weekend sessions, a variety of speakers will offer pre-day events on Thursday, October 11. Alex Rogers, president and founder of CharTec, will present How to Differentiate Your IT Offering. Ginger Clay of CompTIA will host CompTIA Quick Start Guide to Social Media for Marketing. And a group of industry experts will deliver a session on disaster recovery focusing on StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect platform.

]]>Current State of Telecommunicationshttp://www.powersourceonline.com/magazine/2012/07/current-state-of-telecommunications
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:30:55 +0000http://www.powersourceonline.com/magazine/?p=6309Current State of Telecommunications

An Interview with Dave Covert, NetworkStore

We’re talking to Dave Covert from NetworkStore about the current state of telecommunications and how NetworkStore is positioned to handle all the new technology on the horizon.

In the age of bring your own device how are manufacturers keeping up with all the new innovation and is the sky the limit?
One of the people that I follow on twitter is Robert Metcalfe. He basically invented Ethernet and started a company called 3Com. IPv4 was the standard of IP devices and it could provide let’s say 500 million IP addresses. Now the innovation of IPv6 will make IP addresses exponential. If IPv4 was the size of a golf ball then IPv6 is the size of the Sun. Basically everything we use in everyday life will get an IP address. I don’t see any limit; it will only get bigger and as things like the Smart Home and new technologies start to take off you will need more of those IP addresses. Bottom line is it’s all run on Ethernet. To answer the question specifically, no I don’t see any limit, especially when you see things like light switches and other everyday items coming out with IP addresses enabled. You can already operate devices in the home with your smartphone. I don’t see it slowing down at all.

What do you think about Unified Communications and The Cloud, where it’s going and how does NetworkStore have a presence with it?
What you see is UC will eliminate the need for a phone on your desk. The $500 phone on my desk will disappear. Unified Communications is really going to take away the need to have that equipment. That equipment will eventually go away and it will be displaced by everyone having ear buds.

Cloud Computing is different than what you’re doing on your traditional local area network (or whatever you may have) by storing data on a server in house. Traditionally you could have a DR (disaster recovery) site in another city where you have a pipe between this data center and that data center. You store all the data in the DR site too just in case your building was to suffer some extreme disaster. Remember, information is the value of business. All you’re doing with cloud computing is getting rid of those 2 data centers and you’re letting someone else do it for. You’re letting somebody else store all of your information. You’re keeping it out there in The Cloud. What it also does is it makes it so you don’t have to go out and purchase software for applications your business needs. All you need is a login and a password to access applications like SalesForce, etc. I don’t have to worry about programming issues and I don’t have to worry about anything crashing. As long as I have an Internet connection I’m able to access all of my information anyplace in the world on my smartphone or my hotel room or wherever I may be.

NetworkStore is sitting in the right position to be able to help customers as they go to The Cloud because a lot of what they need is a bigger data pipe. Increased hosted cloud solutions means they may need more T-1 modules for routing to the cloud and so on. At some point, customers need to replace equipment and NetworkStore is there to help them as they migrate to new technology as well as help them dispose of displaced equipment. As The Cloud grows and data centers get bigger, there’s always going to be equipment coming in and out. NetworkStore is able to supply it and we’re able to buy it back.

Dave is there a company out there right now that you think is offering something really innovative in the hardware market?
One of the companies I currently look at is Meru Wireless. Their strategy is to provide connectivity across the enterprise via wireless technology, virtually eliminating the wired aspect of desktop computing, etc. I see them growing, they’re out there hiring people at an accelerated rate simply because this is where communications is all going. For example, every time XYZ school system comes back from holiday break or whatever it might be there is another thousand devices that need to hook up to a wireless network. You have all these kids walking in with their iPhones, iPods and tablets and your wireless network will have to be scalable. With the innovation of IPv6 there is going to be an infinite number of IP addresses that will be available. Everything will require an IP address and wireless is going to be the kind of thing that draws a lot of that connectivity so that’s absolutely one of the companies I’m looking at.

Where does a company like Meru fit with NetworkStore?
NetworkStore is able to supply hardware, both new and used, as well as provide maintenance service on it. We also offer cash or credit for whatever equipment is being displaced. For example, most of the products being sold now in the wireless space are 802.11N products, which are rapidly taking the place of A/B/G product. By offering trade in credit for A/B/G product when purchasing N-Standard product, we are able to assist customers that aren’t early adopters of N, or who don’t have the capital to upgrade at this time.

With all of these advances in technology where is NetworkStore a year from now?
I hope to see us in a dramatically different place with our business. Currently there is a lot of Legacy equipment that we’re selling. More candidly some of these manufacturers like HP, Cisco, and Juniper are rolling out hardware at an accelerated rate because they want to keep selling new models. At NetworkStore we will be able to extend the lifecycle of all this equipment. We know a data switch is made to last and operate around 7 to 10 years without shutting it off. One of the things that we are great at is helping companies extend the lifecycle of their equipment. We are able to keep them with the equipment they currently have.

NetworkStore is an industry leader in buying, refurbishing and selling pre-owned network equipment including Cisco, Nortel/Avaya and Polycom. NetworkStore has $50 million in on-hand inventory, making us one of the nation’s largest resellers of used and new Cisco and Nortel/Avaya data and telephony equipment. They can be contacted at www.NetworkStore.com.